Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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161. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason for the decrease in the number of recipients of illness benefit from a 20-year high of 81,253 people in 2010, to an estimated 58,468 recipients in 2014, a ten year low. [36892/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Illness Benefit (IB) is a demand led social insurance-based scheme and the number of recipients is influenced by a range of factors including the number of people in employment, level of health of the working population, people’s social insurance records and scheme conditions.

For example, the reduction in the number of people in employment (down 277,400 from 2008 to 2013) would have had a direct impact on the numbers applying for IB.

In addition a number of policy measures have been introduced in recent years which would have contributed to a reduction in the number of recipients.

In response to the OECD review entitled “Sickness, Disability and Work: Breaking the Barriers” (published in 2008), which identified the structure of the IB scheme as an area of concern (notably the fact that many people were receiving the payment on a long-term basis, increasing the risk that those people will never return to the labour market), the Department introduced a measure in 2009 which capped entitlement to IB at two years.

Also, in Budget 2014 a further measure was introduced which increased the number of “waiting days” before payment is commenced on an IB claim from 3 to 6. This is aimed at incentivising and assisting employers to actively manage short term absences.